Nah, not if you're too busy queuing up outside a retail store opening waiting for a free (sic) piece of marketing material, which is kinda the whole point of this thread and what ConradJoe was, not so eloquently, attempting to point out (and bait) originally.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
The fact that people here got so angry at ConradJoe's original post, the way other people actually compare lining up outside an Apple retail store with Woodstock and the Beatles, not to mention how reactionary and upset others got for simply questionings such rampant consumer lemming like behaviour is in itself really interesting and well worth staying around for.
Nah, not if you're too busy queuing up outside a retail store opening waiting for a free (sic) piece of marketing material, which is kinda the whole point of this thread and what ConradJoe was, not so eloquently, attempting to point out (and bait) originally.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
The fact that people here got so angry at ConradJoe's original post, the way other people actually compare lining up outside an Apple retail store with Woodstock and the Beatles, not to mention how reactionary and upset others got for simply questionings such rampant consumer lemming like behaviour is in itself really interesting and well worth staying around for.
Good, I'm glad you find it interesting. Lemme tell you a story.
In the middle 1950s there was a depressing slew of pap, not pop, music on the airwaves. There was hardly any FM radio, certainly not hifi stereo radio. RCA had strangled Armstrong and his FM invention, driving him to suicide by stealing his patents.
Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Little Richard broke the stranglehold first, then in a few years, Dylan and the Beatles finished off white bread culture for good. People lined up to "mass consume" this liberating music. FM was one vehicle, hifi LPs were another. These weren't consumer goods, they were instruments of an American, British and Continental Spring.
Now we have a similar situation, a liberating instrument in everybody's pocket. (Books were once like that, when the Steve Jobs of printing, Aldus Manutius, came up with the portable book in 1500. The Protestant Reformation was only one result.)
Apple is not making consumerist crap. Pat Boone and I hate to say it, Elvis, were making consumerist crap. Dylan and the rest were freeing music. Art and artful technology are massively liberating.
Let us not think like lemmings and call lining up for liberation lemming behavior. Qualitatively different.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
I don't think obsession with consumer products is a recent phenomena. It's been around in the U.S. at least since the end of World War II. "Keep up with the Joneses" and all that. All of the 1950s family television shows were about "the American way of life", which more often than not meant go out a buy a house, a few cars, kitchen appliances, TVs, etc.
What has changed is the obsession with brands. Displaying a free Apple decal...no problem. But paying for the privilege of being a walking advertisement? I've never understood that.
There is a lot of silliness when it comes to Apple. As much as I love my iPhone, I think that Samsung TV commercial actually gets it right. Why someone would line up for hours to see a new Apple store that sells the same products as every other Apple store, I have no idea. Why they just don't wait a few days until there's no lines, I have no idea. But seeing as how they're all unemployed anyway, I guess they have nothing better to do.
There's one upside to this obsession with Apple. Although their products may be manufactured in China, at least Apple is a U.S. company and employes tens of thousands of people. Also, in an age when product quality is really crappy, it's nice to be able to feel really good about a product that you buy. I think Apple products have become what cars used to be to an earlier generation of Americans. (Do ancient models of Apple products show up in Cuba?) When Apple was a much smaller company, the allegiance of those who believed in it was understandable. The genius of Apple is that they've actually been able to increase the love for the company while becoming a company that serves the mass market. I can't think of a single other American company who has been able to engender that kind of loyalty. That's marketing genius.
As for the crowds today, if 10% of them bought a snack from the food vendors in GCT, then they made some people very happy today. But I suspect the other gift stores were pissed.
Nah, not if you're too busy queuing up outside a retail store opening waiting for a free (sic) piece of marketing material, which is kinda the whole point of this thread and what ConradJoe was, not so eloquently, attempting to point out (and bait) originally.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
The fact that people here got so angry at ConradJoe's original post, the way other people actually compare lining up outside an Apple retail store with Woodstock and the Beatles, not to mention how reactionary and upset others got for simply questionings such rampant consumer lemming like behaviour is in itself really interesting and well worth staying around for.
... or there's always the possibility that your perspective is fucked.
Hell, not even I would say that I view things 100% correctly all the time. I've actually been wrong on occasion.
... or there's always the possibility that your perspective is fucked.
Hell, not even I would say that I view things 100% correctly all the time. I've actually been wrong on occasion.
Just saying...
None of us is correct 100% of the time but you have a track record of being objective and thoughtful about your postings, and easily admitting when you wrong if proven so. I seen to recall tou've even done your research to show a previously held position was false. I respect that.
... or there's always the possibility that your perspective is fucked.
Yeah or maybe just...different
C'mon, the 'fucked perspective' thing is a a bit rich isn't it, just because I have a differing opinion and find it 'weird' that a bunch of folks queue outside a store for absolutely nothing new or exclusive except a free t-shirt/ad for a large but innovative corporation somehow makes my perspective 'fucked'.
Really, was my personal 'non hype' induced ironic observation that personally insulting and hard to comprehend through foggy fanboy eyes?
Look, lets face it all obsessions are weird. To use the previously favoured old rock and roll story, years ago I took the morning off work to buy Nirvana tickets. When I arrived late to work several folks thought it was completely 'weird' that I would call in late to buy concert tickets for a bunch of long haired flannel wearers. Guess what? They were right, it was 'weird' to do such a thing. Considering what eventually happened to that band and factoring in that the queue I lined up for ended up being the only chance I had to see that band, I'm really glad I did skip work.
Here's the thing though, I wasn't personally insulted by the people who disagreed with me and who thought skipping work was a 'weird' thing to do, in fact I realised, that from their perspective, it was indeed 'weird', I never felt the need to tell them that their perspective/opinion was 'fucked' though, then again I didn't have the opportunity back then to respond to them under an alias in an internet forum.
I think some of you folks might be assuming that I somehow 'don't get' what is so great about the the Apple pop culture explosion, the innovation, the queues, the opening and the continued rise of Apple into the consumer world (kinda like I don't 'get' Lady GaGa or Katy Perry) but honestly, I do understand it, am impressed by it and look forward to seeing what Apple have in store for the future, I'm just also completely entertained by the absurdity of the whole thing, how seriously people take it and how upset some of them get when you offer an alternative view to the overly positive PR onslaught.
With a reaction like 'your perspective is fucked' you'd think I'd somehow insulted someone's 'god'.
They used to call us Mac users a cult but the Apple user of today has evolved into something else altogether, an organised religion, which is both exciting AND scary all at once.
That's OK though, just like the Grand Central store opening, it is perfectly ok to be both excited AND 'weirded out' at the same time, you don't have to pick one or the other and taking a more rigid, unquestionable and orthodox stance doesn't somehow make you more right or a more understanding, worthy fan.
. . . They used to call us Mac users a cult but the Apple user of today has evolved into something else altogether, an organised religion, which is both exciting AND scary all at once. . . .
C'mon yourself. The only reason you got a reaction from me was that you were defending the duplicitous miscreant CJ in his public humiliation of the kid and his mother (?) in the photograph. Unforgivable for him to say what he said, public bullying, and the kid was going to see it because someone was going to tell him he was on AI.
Organized religion? You're making up cant phrases now. Who is the pope? What is the doctrine?
What you are seeing is people assembling enthusiastically around a new communication medium and a new art from. Picture people crowding around the booksellers' stalls as the latest installment of a Dickens novel comes in from the printers. It's a positive thing. The Internet in your pants, as Gruber says. The Arab Spring is just the beginning.
Apple isn't telling people what to think, they're selling portable television broadcasting stations to individuals. We should wake up and appreciate this, rather than calling people who buy into it "weird."
C'mon, the 'fucked perspective' thing is a a bit rich isn't it, just because I have a differing opinion and find it 'weird' that a bunch of folks queue outside a store for absolutely nothing new or exclusive except a free t-shirt/ad for a large but innovative corporation somehow makes my perspective 'fucked'.
Really, was my personal 'non hype' induced ironic observation that personally insulting and hard to comprehend through foggy fanboy eyes?
<snip> more of the same </snip>
Oh, I can understand someone saying something to the effect:
"Wow, I've never understood the lining up thing for a consumer product, but then again, I've lined up to get tickets for a game or a concert. To each his own"
... but, it's just the way you word it. Your wording, as I understand it, is that you somehow or other believe you are superior to those who line up at Apple stores. As if being a fan of Apple is somehow inferior and actually is "weird" as compared to being a fan of the Beatles or the Cowboys.
... and you strengthen my view by saying I have "foggy fanboy eyes". Really?! After I only asked if there was the "possibility" of your perspective being fucked. Like you believe in yourself 100% and there should be absolutely no doubt in anything you say.
C'mon yourself. The only reason you got a reaction from me was that you were defending the duplicitous miscreant CJ in his public humiliation of the kid and his mother (?) in the photograph. Unforgivable for him to say what he said, public bullying, and the kid was going to see it because someone was going to tell him he was on AI.
Organized religion? You're making up cant phrases now. Who is the pope? What is the doctrine?
What you are seeing is people assembling enthusiastically around a new communication medium and a new art from. Picture people crowding around the booksellers' stalls as the latest installment of a Dickens novel comes in from the printers. It's a positive thing. The Internet in your pants, as Gruber says. The Arab Spring is just the beginning.
Apple isn't telling people what to think, they're selling portable television broadcasting stations to individuals. We should wake up and appreciate this, rather than calling people who buy into it "weird."
Apple has always been really special to me. Apple's technology made it possible for me to start my own company and then feed, house and clothe myself for the last 23 years. I could never have done it with a pc, at least not with the ease that Apple allowed... not even close. I'm highly grateful. Apple's products are cool. I get the enthusiasm. It's not quite the same without Steve but it wasn't the last time either but I still celebrated Apple at that time and I celebrate them now.
Apple has always been really special to me. Apple's technology made it possible for me to start my own company and then feed, house and cloth myself for the last 23 years. I could never have done it with a pc, at least not with the ease that Apple allowed... not even close. I'm highly grateful. Apple's products are cool. I get the enthusiasm. It's not quite the same without Steve but it wasn't the last time either but I still celebrated Apple at that time and I celebrate them now.
Wow, far out, and right on. I do not jest. I wonder how many other hermits there are on other islands because of the toolmaking vision of a few Silicon Valley crazy ones back in the 70s and 80s?
Edit: Did anyone see this article by James Kendrick on using the iPad as a writing computer, made better than a laptop by using a Bluetooth keyboard, linked to by Gruber?
Yes but one (not me) could easily argue that saying things like;
"the possibility that your perspective is fucked"
and
"I could be wrong"
at the end of a statement are pretty convenient ways of sounding open minded while at the same time not having to stand by and take ownership for what you said previously.
They're the sort of statements that politicians love so much, I pictured the voice of Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons (being caught with a hooker) saying them when I first read them here.
You could also say "My friend said your opinion is fucked" or "I am humble"
Look guys, as exciting as I thought the whole GC launch was, I ALSO personally found it all pretty odd. When I read ConradJoe's original intentionally baitable 'weirdos' comment, I had a laugh because I could not only see where he was coming from with a differing 'perspective' on things but I also guessed that such a blasé comment was guaranteed to cause others with a less humorous sarcastic bent, to jump in and rip him a new asshole, which they quickly proceeded to do.
The irony of him calling such obviously 'normal' photos of kids and their parents 'weirdo's' because of what they were doing, not what they looked like was completely misinterpreted and lost on his nay-sayers.
Some of the other Apple rumour sites have had similar stories regarding the Store opening and there have been lots of other posters commenting that the whole phenomenon of lining up for a new store with nothing new to offer seemed weird. Being Apple sites and filled with Apple faithfuls naturally led to many defending the crowds against the 'weird' observations, which is understandable but none of the other defenders have felt it necessary to suggest that those who found it weird might have a 'fucked perspective'. Most just dismissed the 'weird' commentors as simply not 'getting it' which is in itself is a pretty convenient, dismissive and superior, 'all knowing' way to disregard an opinion that differs from your own.
While I appreciate a good Apple story, you really don't need to tell me how Apple 'changed your life' in order for me to 'get it', Believe it or not, just like our rock'n roll stories I've got my own 'Apple changed my life' stories too, which, while maybe different to yours, are also most likely eerily similar in the overall sense. I'm writing this on what I think is my 16th alleged pro Mac workstation in the last 20 years and depending on what Apple have planned with the Mac Pro and the pro market in general, it does actually pain me to think that it may be my last (workstation, not mac).
Outside of the Apple news sites though most of the mainstream press stories I've read have been as much about the 'weird' Apple phenomenon of lining up for nothing as they have been about the actual store opening which makes me wonder if it is actually some of the 'Apple faithful' who are the ones that 'don't get' why others might find the whole thing odd.
Apologies if you found my previous posts insulting, I come from a country where irony and sarcasm run pretty deep, it is pretty much a part of our cultural identity, there's almost no 'holy cow' that we won't 'take the piss out of' even the things we genuinely love (although some might draw the line at football). I know it can sometimes come off as abrasive but things aren't always meant to be taken too literally and with offence ('fucked' however only has one meaning here).
I think one of the misunderstandings here is the idea that being labelled 'weird' is only an insult and a negative but it doesn't always have to be like that, not where I'm from anyway, the US i'm not so sure sure but I do know you grew a pretty great guy called Bill Hicks. If you guys are posting from the States then you're better qualified to speak about US irony and sarcasm than me.
With an ironic/sarcastic bent the word 'weird' here, can be both endearing AND 'weird' at the same time, I'm sorry if that is hard to understand but I come from a country that still has a queen and I can't even begin to explain, understand or justify that one either. I can however tell you that when a friend greeted me earlier tonight at a work party with "hey how ya doing ya poofter" I wasn't worried that he actually thought I was gay and I wasn't offended, just glad to see a funny friend who shares the same bent sense of humour.
ConradJoe's original post was so short that we can only speculate whether he seriously thought the queues of people were actual 'weirdo's' in an offensive manner or simply 'weirdo's' in a jestful/sarcastic manner, I chose to see it as the later. I suspect he left things intentionally short so as to leave things open to interpretation, and boy did they interpret, so much so that he came back with his N word rant which just put him deeper in the shit pile.
The ironic thing about me finding the GC queues 'weird' though is that I actually attended the launch of the first NY Apple SoHo store. I was in NY as a tourist and a local friend had a +1 invite. She knew that I was a big mac fan and took me along. I'm glad we went to the launch, not just for the pomp of it all but because some of the things like 'Dr Bott' adapters I needed and bought at the time are still hard to get here.
We should just settle this whole thing with some friendly ironic tattoos;
I'll get the one that says "Anything Apple related doesn't work well in a sentence with any negativity (including irony and jest)"
and you blokes can get "Apple users are strange?..sometimes(and in a nice way)"
Sorry for the length, I'm not quite the twitter guy yet and just got back from having a 'few too many' at a work Xmas party
Look guys, as exciting as I thought the whole GC launch was, I ALSO personally found it all pretty odd. When I read ConradJoe's original intentionally baitable 'weirdos' comment, I had a laugh because I could not only see where he was coming from with a differing 'perspective' on things but I also guessed that such a blasé comment was guaranteed to cause others with a less humorous sarcastic bent, to jump in and rip him a new asshole, which they quickly proceeded to do.
<snip> more stuff we don't really need to know... and on and on</snip>
Okay... we get it. You're brilliant and way too intelligent to talk to the rest of us because everything is so over our heads that we need you as an interpreter.
Yes but one (not me) could easily argue that saying things like;
"the possibility that your perspective is fucked"
and
"I could be wrong"
at the end of a statement are pretty convenient ways of sounding open minded while at the same time not having to stand by and take ownership for what you said previously.
They're the sort of statements that politicians love so much, I pictured the voice of Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons (being caught with a hooker) saying them when I first read them here.
You could also say "My friend said your opinion is fucked" or "I am humble"
... and, you see, the person who argued that would be absolutely wrong.
How do I know that? Well, I'm the one who said the comment in question in the first place. So that other person obviously has a fucked perspective... but, of course, as you pointed out, we're not talking about you in this case.
That has to be annoying for those commuting through GCT this morning.
How long before the Apple store in GCT starts becoming a regular fixture of traffic/commuter updates in the local news? All I could think of when looking at that picture was "holy crap!"
Yep, I confess to being a sucker, and I confess to trying to get him thrown out.
The best way to get him gone is to just stop engaging him. Trolls wither and die without the bile they cause to feed on.
If you must speak about him do just that. Don't engage him directly but only refer to him in the third person. Not as effective as the Troll RAID that is starvation by ignoring, but it can be far more effective in the long term since the troll gets attention, but not in a direct way and in a way that it has no control over.
But for the love of all that is good and reasonable people, STOP QUOTING ENTIRE MESSAGES. Seriously - it takes what, two or three clicks and maybe a press of the backspace key to trim things down?
Norman Rockwell celebrated American life, not rampant consumerism.
American life isn't centered around "rampant consumerism"? Fascinating...
I suppose the turkey in the most famous of his paintings just flew into the families kitchen - and the other accouterments in the picture were just scrounged up from digging through the trash, eh?
Ugh - this kind of ugly class warfare bullshit and free market jihadism being passed as "insightful commentary" is beyond pathetic at this point. Go pretend to be enlightened somewhere else.
Comments
Go ahead.
We'll miss you.
Nah, not if you're too busy queuing up outside a retail store opening waiting for a free (sic) piece of marketing material, which is kinda the whole point of this thread and what ConradJoe was, not so eloquently, attempting to point out (and bait) originally.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
The fact that people here got so angry at ConradJoe's original post, the way other people actually compare lining up outside an Apple retail store with Woodstock and the Beatles, not to mention how reactionary and upset others got for simply questionings such rampant consumer lemming like behaviour is in itself really interesting and well worth staying around for.
Nah, not if you're too busy queuing up outside a retail store opening waiting for a free (sic) piece of marketing material, which is kinda the whole point of this thread and what ConradJoe was, not so eloquently, attempting to point out (and bait) originally.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
The fact that people here got so angry at ConradJoe's original post, the way other people actually compare lining up outside an Apple retail store with Woodstock and the Beatles, not to mention how reactionary and upset others got for simply questionings such rampant consumer lemming like behaviour is in itself really interesting and well worth staying around for.
Good, I'm glad you find it interesting. Lemme tell you a story.
In the middle 1950s there was a depressing slew of pap, not pop, music on the airwaves. There was hardly any FM radio, certainly not hifi stereo radio. RCA had strangled Armstrong and his FM invention, driving him to suicide by stealing his patents.
Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Little Richard broke the stranglehold first, then in a few years, Dylan and the Beatles finished off white bread culture for good. People lined up to "mass consume" this liberating music. FM was one vehicle, hifi LPs were another. These weren't consumer goods, they were instruments of an American, British and Continental Spring.
Now we have a similar situation, a liberating instrument in everybody's pocket. (Books were once like that, when the Steve Jobs of printing, Aldus Manutius, came up with the portable book in 1500. The Protestant Reformation was only one result.)
Apple is not making consumerist crap. Pat Boone and I hate to say it, Elvis, were making consumerist crap. Dylan and the rest were freeing music. Art and artful technology are massively liberating.
Let us not think like lemmings and call lining up for liberation lemming behavior. Qualitatively different.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
I don't think obsession with consumer products is a recent phenomena. It's been around in the U.S. at least since the end of World War II. "Keep up with the Joneses" and all that. All of the 1950s family television shows were about "the American way of life", which more often than not meant go out a buy a house, a few cars, kitchen appliances, TVs, etc.
What has changed is the obsession with brands. Displaying a free Apple decal...no problem. But paying for the privilege of being a walking advertisement? I've never understood that.
There is a lot of silliness when it comes to Apple. As much as I love my iPhone, I think that Samsung TV commercial actually gets it right. Why someone would line up for hours to see a new Apple store that sells the same products as every other Apple store, I have no idea. Why they just don't wait a few days until there's no lines, I have no idea. But seeing as how they're all unemployed anyway, I guess they have nothing better to do.
There's one upside to this obsession with Apple. Although their products may be manufactured in China, at least Apple is a U.S. company and employes tens of thousands of people. Also, in an age when product quality is really crappy, it's nice to be able to feel really good about a product that you buy. I think Apple products have become what cars used to be to an earlier generation of Americans. (Do ancient models of Apple products show up in Cuba?) When Apple was a much smaller company, the allegiance of those who believed in it was understandable. The genius of Apple is that they've actually been able to increase the love for the company while becoming a company that serves the mass market. I can't think of a single other American company who has been able to engender that kind of loyalty. That's marketing genius.
As for the crowds today, if 10% of them bought a snack from the food vendors in GCT, then they made some people very happy today. But I suspect the other gift stores were pissed.
Nah, not if you're too busy queuing up outside a retail store opening waiting for a free (sic) piece of marketing material, which is kinda the whole point of this thread and what ConradJoe was, not so eloquently, attempting to point out (and bait) originally.
Maybe the forum on an Apple rumor site isn't the most popular place to question whether the ever increasing obsession with consumer products (even good ones, like Apple products) is slightly 'odd' or 'weird'.
The fact that people here got so angry at ConradJoe's original post, the way other people actually compare lining up outside an Apple retail store with Woodstock and the Beatles, not to mention how reactionary and upset others got for simply questionings such rampant consumer lemming like behaviour is in itself really interesting and well worth staying around for.
... or there's always the possibility that your perspective is fucked.
Hell, not even I would say that I view things 100% correctly all the time. I've actually been wrong on occasion.
Just saying...
... or there's always the possibility that your perspective is fucked.
Hell, not even I would say that I view things 100% correctly all the time. I've actually been wrong on occasion.
Just saying...
None of us is correct 100% of the time but you have a track record of being objective and thoughtful about your postings, and easily admitting when you wrong if proven so. I seen to recall tou've even done your research to show a previously held position was false. I respect that.
... or there's always the possibility that your perspective is fucked.
Yeah or maybe just...different
C'mon, the 'fucked perspective' thing is a a bit rich isn't it, just because I have a differing opinion and find it 'weird' that a bunch of folks queue outside a store for absolutely nothing new or exclusive except a free t-shirt/ad for a large but innovative corporation somehow makes my perspective 'fucked'.
Really, was my personal 'non hype' induced ironic observation that personally insulting and hard to comprehend through foggy fanboy eyes?
Look, lets face it all obsessions are weird. To use the previously favoured old rock and roll story, years ago I took the morning off work to buy Nirvana tickets. When I arrived late to work several folks thought it was completely 'weird' that I would call in late to buy concert tickets for a bunch of long haired flannel wearers. Guess what? They were right, it was 'weird' to do such a thing. Considering what eventually happened to that band and factoring in that the queue I lined up for ended up being the only chance I had to see that band, I'm really glad I did skip work.
Here's the thing though, I wasn't personally insulted by the people who disagreed with me and who thought skipping work was a 'weird' thing to do, in fact I realised, that from their perspective, it was indeed 'weird', I never felt the need to tell them that their perspective/opinion was 'fucked' though, then again I didn't have the opportunity back then to respond to them under an alias in an internet forum.
I think some of you folks might be assuming that I somehow 'don't get' what is so great about the the Apple pop culture explosion, the innovation, the queues, the opening and the continued rise of Apple into the consumer world (kinda like I don't 'get' Lady GaGa or Katy Perry) but honestly, I do understand it, am impressed by it and look forward to seeing what Apple have in store for the future, I'm just also completely entertained by the absurdity of the whole thing, how seriously people take it and how upset some of them get when you offer an alternative view to the overly positive PR onslaught.
With a reaction like 'your perspective is fucked' you'd think I'd somehow insulted someone's 'god'.
They used to call us Mac users a cult but the Apple user of today has evolved into something else altogether, an organised religion, which is both exciting AND scary all at once.
That's OK though, just like the Grand Central store opening, it is perfectly ok to be both excited AND 'weirded out' at the same time, you don't have to pick one or the other and taking a more rigid, unquestionable and orthodox stance doesn't somehow make you more right or a more understanding, worthy fan.
. . . They used to call us Mac users a cult but the Apple user of today has evolved into something else altogether, an organised religion, which is both exciting AND scary all at once. . . .
C'mon yourself. The only reason you got a reaction from me was that you were defending the duplicitous miscreant CJ in his public humiliation of the kid and his mother (?) in the photograph. Unforgivable for him to say what he said, public bullying, and the kid was going to see it because someone was going to tell him he was on AI.
Organized religion? You're making up cant phrases now. Who is the pope? What is the doctrine?
What you are seeing is people assembling enthusiastically around a new communication medium and a new art from. Picture people crowding around the booksellers' stalls as the latest installment of a Dickens novel comes in from the printers. It's a positive thing. The Internet in your pants, as Gruber says. The Arab Spring is just the beginning.
Apple isn't telling people what to think, they're selling portable television broadcasting stations to individuals. We should wake up and appreciate this, rather than calling people who buy into it "weird."
Yeah or maybe just...different
C'mon, the 'fucked perspective' thing is a a bit rich isn't it, just because I have a differing opinion and find it 'weird' that a bunch of folks queue outside a store for absolutely nothing new or exclusive except a free t-shirt/ad for a large but innovative corporation somehow makes my perspective 'fucked'.
Really, was my personal 'non hype' induced ironic observation that personally insulting and hard to comprehend through foggy fanboy eyes?
<snip> more of the same </snip>
Oh, I can understand someone saying something to the effect:
"Wow, I've never understood the lining up thing for a consumer product, but then again, I've lined up to get tickets for a game or a concert. To each his own"
... but, it's just the way you word it. Your wording, as I understand it, is that you somehow or other believe you are superior to those who line up at Apple stores. As if being a fan of Apple is somehow inferior and actually is "weird" as compared to being a fan of the Beatles or the Cowboys.
... and you strengthen my view by saying I have "foggy fanboy eyes". Really?! After I only asked if there was the "possibility" of your perspective being fucked. Like you believe in yourself 100% and there should be absolutely no doubt in anything you say.
It's just the way I view the way you say it.
I could be wrong.
C'mon yourself. The only reason you got a reaction from me was that you were defending the duplicitous miscreant CJ in his public humiliation of the kid and his mother (?) in the photograph. Unforgivable for him to say what he said, public bullying, and the kid was going to see it because someone was going to tell him he was on AI.
Organized religion? You're making up cant phrases now. Who is the pope? What is the doctrine?
What you are seeing is people assembling enthusiastically around a new communication medium and a new art from. Picture people crowding around the booksellers' stalls as the latest installment of a Dickens novel comes in from the printers. It's a positive thing. The Internet in your pants, as Gruber says. The Arab Spring is just the beginning.
Apple isn't telling people what to think, they're selling portable television broadcasting stations to individuals. We should wake up and appreciate this, rather than calling people who buy into it "weird."
Apple has always been really special to me. Apple's technology made it possible for me to start my own company and then feed, house and clothe myself for the last 23 years. I could never have done it with a pc, at least not with the ease that Apple allowed... not even close. I'm highly grateful. Apple's products are cool. I get the enthusiasm. It's not quite the same without Steve but it wasn't the last time either but I still celebrated Apple at that time and I celebrate them now.
Apple has always been really special to me. Apple's technology made it possible for me to start my own company and then feed, house and cloth myself for the last 23 years. I could never have done it with a pc, at least not with the ease that Apple allowed... not even close. I'm highly grateful. Apple's products are cool. I get the enthusiasm. It's not quite the same without Steve but it wasn't the last time either but I still celebrated Apple at that time and I celebrate them now.
Wow, far out, and right on. I do not jest. I wonder how many other hermits there are on other islands because of the toolmaking vision of a few Silicon Valley crazy ones back in the 70s and 80s?
Edit: Did anyone see this article by James Kendrick on using the iPad as a writing computer, made better than a laptop by using a Bluetooth keyboard, linked to by Gruber?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-new...ne-how-to/5964
"the possibility that your perspective is fucked"
and
"I could be wrong"
at the end of a statement are pretty convenient ways of sounding open minded while at the same time not having to stand by and take ownership for what you said previously.
They're the sort of statements that politicians love so much, I pictured the voice of Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons (being caught with a hooker) saying them when I first read them here.
You could also say "My friend said your opinion is fucked" or "I am humble"
The irony of him calling such obviously 'normal' photos of kids and their parents 'weirdo's' because of what they were doing, not what they looked like was completely misinterpreted and lost on his nay-sayers.
Some of the other Apple rumour sites have had similar stories regarding the Store opening and there have been lots of other posters commenting that the whole phenomenon of lining up for a new store with nothing new to offer seemed weird. Being Apple sites and filled with Apple faithfuls naturally led to many defending the crowds against the 'weird' observations, which is understandable but none of the other defenders have felt it necessary to suggest that those who found it weird might have a 'fucked perspective'. Most just dismissed the 'weird' commentors as simply not 'getting it' which is in itself is a pretty convenient, dismissive and superior, 'all knowing' way to disregard an opinion that differs from your own.
While I appreciate a good Apple story, you really don't need to tell me how Apple 'changed your life' in order for me to 'get it', Believe it or not, just like our rock'n roll stories I've got my own 'Apple changed my life' stories too, which, while maybe different to yours, are also most likely eerily similar in the overall sense. I'm writing this on what I think is my 16th alleged pro Mac workstation in the last 20 years and depending on what Apple have planned with the Mac Pro and the pro market in general, it does actually pain me to think that it may be my last (workstation, not mac).
Outside of the Apple news sites though most of the mainstream press stories I've read have been as much about the 'weird' Apple phenomenon of lining up for nothing as they have been about the actual store opening which makes me wonder if it is actually some of the 'Apple faithful' who are the ones that 'don't get' why others might find the whole thing odd.
Apologies if you found my previous posts insulting, I come from a country where irony and sarcasm run pretty deep, it is pretty much a part of our cultural identity, there's almost no 'holy cow' that we won't 'take the piss out of' even the things we genuinely love (although some might draw the line at football). I know it can sometimes come off as abrasive but things aren't always meant to be taken too literally and with offence ('fucked' however only has one meaning here).
I think one of the misunderstandings here is the idea that being labelled 'weird' is only an insult and a negative but it doesn't always have to be like that, not where I'm from anyway, the US i'm not so sure sure but I do know you grew a pretty great guy called Bill Hicks. If you guys are posting from the States then you're better qualified to speak about US irony and sarcasm than me.
With an ironic/sarcastic bent the word 'weird' here, can be both endearing AND 'weird' at the same time, I'm sorry if that is hard to understand but I come from a country that still has a queen and I can't even begin to explain, understand or justify that one either. I can however tell you that when a friend greeted me earlier tonight at a work party with "hey how ya doing ya poofter" I wasn't worried that he actually thought I was gay and I wasn't offended, just glad to see a funny friend who shares the same bent sense of humour.
ConradJoe's original post was so short that we can only speculate whether he seriously thought the queues of people were actual 'weirdo's' in an offensive manner or simply 'weirdo's' in a jestful/sarcastic manner, I chose to see it as the later. I suspect he left things intentionally short so as to leave things open to interpretation, and boy did they interpret, so much so that he came back with his N word rant which just put him deeper in the shit pile.
The ironic thing about me finding the GC queues 'weird' though is that I actually attended the launch of the first NY Apple SoHo store. I was in NY as a tourist and a local friend had a +1 invite. She knew that I was a big mac fan and took me along. I'm glad we went to the launch, not just for the pomp of it all but because some of the things like 'Dr Bott' adapters I needed and bought at the time are still hard to get here.
We should just settle this whole thing with some friendly ironic tattoos;
I'll get the one that says "Anything Apple related doesn't work well in a sentence with any negativity (including irony and jest)"
and you blokes can get "Apple users are strange?..sometimes(and in a nice way)"
Sorry for the length, I'm not quite the twitter guy yet and just got back from having a 'few too many' at a work Xmas party
Look guys, as exciting as I thought the whole GC launch was, I ALSO personally found it all pretty odd. When I read ConradJoe's original intentionally baitable 'weirdos' comment, I had a laugh because I could not only see where he was coming from with a differing 'perspective' on things but I also guessed that such a blasé comment was guaranteed to cause others with a less humorous sarcastic bent, to jump in and rip him a new asshole, which they quickly proceeded to do.
<snip> more stuff we don't really need to know... and on and on</snip>
Okay... we get it. You're brilliant and way too intelligent to talk to the rest of us because everything is so over our heads that we need you as an interpreter.
Yes but one (not me) could easily argue that saying things like;
"the possibility that your perspective is fucked"
and
"I could be wrong"
at the end of a statement are pretty convenient ways of sounding open minded while at the same time not having to stand by and take ownership for what you said previously.
They're the sort of statements that politicians love so much, I pictured the voice of Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons (being caught with a hooker) saying them when I first read them here.
You could also say "My friend said your opinion is fucked" or "I am humble"
... and, you see, the person who argued that would be absolutely wrong.
How do I know that? Well, I'm the one who said the comment in question in the first place. So that other person obviously has a fucked perspective... but, of course, as you pointed out, we're not talking about you in this case.
That has to be annoying for those commuting through GCT this morning.
How long before the Apple store in GCT starts becoming a regular fixture of traffic/commuter updates in the local news? All I could think of when looking at that picture was "holy crap!"
this kind of enthusiasm must be the envy of the entire retail world. Impressive.
As paid Astroturfer's like CJ exemplify...
So what is the actual incentive of waiting outside for the store opening? Are there any purchase incentives at all? Giveaways?
Some people actually like the social aspects of such events. Weirdos
I actually have an Apple tshirt from a store opening. My parents go it
Yep, I confess to being a sucker, and I confess to trying to get him thrown out.
The best way to get him gone is to just stop engaging him. Trolls wither and die without the bile they cause to feed on.
If you must speak about him do just that. Don't engage him directly but only refer to him in the third person. Not as effective as the Troll RAID that is starvation by ignoring, but it can be far more effective in the long term since the troll gets attention, but not in a direct way and in a way that it has no control over.
But for the love of all that is good and reasonable people, STOP QUOTING ENTIRE MESSAGES. Seriously - it takes what, two or three clicks and maybe a press of the backspace key to trim things down?
Norman Rockwell celebrated American life, not rampant consumerism.
American life isn't centered around "rampant consumerism"? Fascinating...
I suppose the turkey in the most famous of his paintings just flew into the families kitchen - and the other accouterments in the picture were just scrounged up from digging through the trash, eh?
Ugh - this kind of ugly class warfare bullshit and free market jihadism being passed as "insightful commentary" is beyond pathetic at this point. Go pretend to be enlightened somewhere else.